“The exact design of that we’d have to work out, obviously,” a senior administration official told reporters before the speech. The official said the fail-safe trigger would be intended to prompt Congress to act, rather than actually allowing across-the-board spending cuts or automatic tax hikes to take effect.

“We feel tax expenditures passing through the tax code should be a part of that ultimate enforcement mechanism or trigger,” the official said. “We want to to send a message that there will be deficit reduction … under any circumstances.”

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Some of the proposals have been offered by the White House before, such as a plan to strengthen an independent board that sets reimbursement rates under Medicare. A similar plan to ratchet down payments in the event of spending overruns was part of Obama’s proposal for health care reform. It drew intense opposition from health care providers and was significantly watered down in the bill the president signed last year.

The proposal the White House rolled out Wednesday calls for holding increases in Medicare spending to 0.5 percent annually, after adjusting for overall inflation and new enrollments in the program.

Obama pleased many on the left by delivering a forceful defense of the role of government in American life.

“That was a clear, unambiguous, morally grounded defense of the welfare state—as strong and stirring as I’ve seen from this president,” said Jonathan Cohn, a health-care reform advocate at The New Republic.

However, the president rebuffed some liberals by embracing the idea of deficit cutting as an urgent national priority and by being vague about how the government might raise additional revenues to continue current programs. In addition, Obama’s plan echoed the basic framework of the bipartisan deficit commission, which recommended a three-to-one ratio of spending cuts to revenue increases. However, the White House sought to limit the pain of the cuts by stretching the timeframe for some reductions to 12 years rather than by the end of the decade, as the commission planned.

The White House acknowledged that the proposed defense cuts were smaller than those the deficit commission and other budget hawks have urged. “The president as commander in chief has to go through a more careful review and this is what he believes is a reasonable target, subject to the review that he must do carefully with Secretary Gates,” a senior administration official said.

Obama spoke amid increasingly vocal complaints from Republicans and Democrats that he has been absent from the debate over how to deal with the nation’s long-term fiscal crisis. He has previously embraced in broad terms the work of a bipartisan deficit commission he appointed, but he also has said he disagreed with unspecified aspects of it.

Obama met Wednesday with a bipartisan group of congressional leaders and said Vice President Joe Biden would oversee the administration’s negotiations with Congress over the deficit-cuttting plan. But even before Obama spoke Wednesday, Republican leaders criticized him for failing to delve into specifics about how the budget could be balanced.

“The truth is, the president is only entering this debate at all because he can no longer ignore the growing bipartisan calls for action. If he were serious, he’d be talking about a detailed road map for action, not just grabbing headlines by announcing another speech. …” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on the Senate floor. “Americans don’t want to hear the President’s vision today — he’s had two years to lay that out. They want to hear his plan.”

Obama’s plan contained more detail than some expected, but its discussion of broad targets for cuts in spending and revenue hikes fell short of the level of detail the debt commission offered in its plan last year.

The GOP got their lunches taken AGAIN with a President that properly framed the GOP proposal as antithetical to the vision of America shared by most of the people in this country. He framed fiscal policy, properly, as being the way by which we fund government so that it can do what we want it to do, in contrast to the GOP's vision of fiscal policy, which seems to mean nothing but "cut government.

The one dimensional Great White Nopes are in very very bad shape.

There's no amount of spin in the world that's going to keep them from getting SMASHED. All with a smile, I might add.

Great- we can pay off our debt by the time my grandkids have their own. We are getting ready to up the debt limit past 14 trillion. I thought the president knew this. Instead he thinks we should be out of debt about 60 years from now.

The important point that people forget is that the richest two percentage has become richer over the last decade. They have used every loophole, the best accountants and lobbied congress so that they can avoid taxes. Laws are creating so that they pay less taxes.

No PLAN was proposed, just more of the same tired "change" ideas...another commission, finally considering some of the last commissions ideas, tax the rich...no PLAN just more blah, blah, blah. But, of course, what would we expect with just four days work? What a joke.

Like the part about reforming the tax code... long overdue... Not enought in terms of specifics in the speech, more outsourcing to congress...... This speech appeared to be for the optics of appearing to have a plan without actually having a plan, just broad sweeping statements and false choices.... The fact that the Democrat president has to give this speech is a win for the tea party and congressman Ryan.

This President is shiftless. It's always later, later. Hey Barry Hussein, you're president now and let's get these cuts going. He's always more pie in the sky but when it comes time to act, he'll vote 'present'.

We've seen this straight face liar before, he's borderline sociopathic, I think he actually believes his BS when he says it. Just like when he said with conviction that the health care negotiations would be on C-SPAN.

We're going to raise taxes to help balance the budget both by ending the Obama/Bush tax cuts, and as a consequence of tax reform. And if it means taking back the House in 2012... well, we're in a crisis here. If it means some Republican congressmen lose their jobs, well, SO BE IT. It's a real possibility now that Republicans are going after Medicare. And Obama is on the moral high ground in this argument. Republicans want to balance the budget on the backs of seniors, the poor, the middle class. It's just plain wrong.

And we're expanding "ObamaCare" since it reduces the deficit by $1Trillion over 20 years.

Just because "doing the right thing" costs money doesn't mean we shouldn't do it. But we certainly have to pay for it.

President Obama is right! We cannot expect seniors to pay more for their healthcare - just so Republicans can give their rich friends more taxcuts! For 10 years now , the rich have gotten HUGE taxcuts ! 10 years seems long enough!

This was a political speech, not a policy speech. The same old tired cliche's (scapel, not a machete), the same politics of fear (the repubs want to steal granny's care, but Obama will protect us), the same straw men.

The fact is, the only reason why there is even a speech today is because the GOP is pushing Obama on his reckless spending. This speech sounds good until you remember Obama's "budget" that he released a few months back, or worse, his SOTU where he tried to call spending "investment" (repeated the same here).

Not to mention the obvious hypocrisy of being against raising the debt limit when the GOP had the white house (and a much much smaller debt), yet for it now when debt is so much higher. As well as his typical appeals to work together despite being the most divisive president I've ever seen in my life.

Obama is the worst president I've ever witnessed. He's so blatantly insincere, and his policy decisions always put America's needs last. I can only hope that Americans make the right choice in 2012. Those who do vote for this disaster again I really can't respect. You vote for this man again, you really aren't looking out for the best interest of America.

Obama cut spending? That's like Charlie Sheen giving up sex. It won't happen. When has any democrat cut spending with doing it kicking and screaming. Obama wants the rich to pay for Washington's overspending. That's what passes for leadership these days. Barry is not a serious leader. He is not a serious President.

Game Over. Obama has no chance at re-election. His proposal is beyond pathetic. Now we will see which Republican wins the primary. Whoever that is, will be the next president.

Congratulation! Why? Because apparently you can see the future. Have you seen the adds in Florida by Dems about ther voucher plans. So it had no impact... r u kiddding me. Or GOP plans on immigration..did the GOP tell their plans to the Hispanics.

The lunch pail guys don't want to pay for the slackers to sit around waiting for their government check.

Stop the whining son. If you want to take money from your elderly parents to give to your bookie in thinking he's going to help you win, do so. But, for everyone else, and while Obama is in office, it ain't gonna happen.

By the way..............How many jobs were created from 2001-2009 under the tax cuts for the wealthy again? (crickets chirping)

These clowns in the GOP are standing on toothpicks while in an African Giant termite mound! We'll see how big and bad they are by claiming they won't raise the debt limit.